


Somewhere To Run To

by everythingFangirl



Category: Chuckle Sandwich Podcast, Lunch Club, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: (why is this a tag that exists btw), Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Dubious Science, Elemental Magic, Fantasy Violence, Fire, Friendship, Gen, Reunions, Road Trips, Setting Zombies on Fire, no graphic violence though and nobody dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:21:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24028807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingFangirl/pseuds/everythingFangirl
Summary: In this situation, solitude was safer, of course. Less of a chance of suddenly getting attacked by an elemental monster. Other people were dangerous, Ted knew, so he did his best to stay away from them. But here’s the catch: it was incredibly fucking lonely.---basically, a zombie apocalypse-inspired Lunch Club AU, but with superpowers this time(THIS IS AN OLDER FIC WRITTEN SEVERAL MONTHS BEFORE THE MARKED COMPLETION DATE, just so you're aware)
Relationships: Charlie Dalgleish & Ted Nivison, Jschlatt & Ted Nivison, No Romantic Relationship(s), as someone wise once said kneecaps are a privilege not a right :), your daily reminder to not ship lunch club :)
Comments: 105
Kudos: 263





	1. waking up at the start (prologue)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I Still Feel Alive (when it's hopeless, I start to notice)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23894506) by [writing_and_worrying](https://archiveofourown.org/users/writing_and_worrying/pseuds/writing_and_worrying). 
  * Inspired by [Epilogue](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22242805) by Anonymous. 
  * Inspired by [“how,,,???”](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20089306) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



> Story-wise, the premise is inspired by zombie apocalypse AUs but with a few twists, including superpowers. NO graphic violence or character death though, I'm trying to focus more on character dynamics as well as the superpower aspect. Check out any of the other works linked above if you want to read more zapoc AUs!
> 
> These are heavily fictionalized versions of the creators involved, written for the sake of fiction, to practice my writing, and to have fun. I have nothing but respect for these people and I want to make sure I'm respecting their boundaries; I won't include any shipping or graphic violence. If you think I'm still crossing any boundaries with this story, please let me know; and as always if I make anyone involved uncomfortable and you'd like me to take this down, I'll gladly do so. Thank you!
> 
> Work and chapter titles are from/inspired by the song How Far We've Come by Matchbox Twenty.
> 
> EDIT November 13th 2020/December 6th 2021: In summary, I took a six-month hiatus after chapter 6 was published, and basically just stopped writing. I realized that I didn't have the energy to keep writing this story, so I discarded my plans for the next two arcs of the plot (the first six chapters are still a completed “arc”). The epilogue chapter is still the ending I had originally planned, included for a sense of completion and a happy ending, but the rest of the story leading up to it remains unwritten and unpublished. This story isn't as complete as I would have liked it to be, but I hope you can enjoy it regardless.
> 
> I originally published two additional interlude chapters featuring Cooper, Travis, Noah and Carson. However, since the allegations made against Carson on January 5th, I made the decision to remove those chapters (in addition to removing Carson and references to him from my other works).

There wasn’t much left to do then besides drive. 

Ted had lost track of the days somewhere around two weeks after it all went to hell. The road in front of him looked identical to the roads he’d left behind; he was only vaguely aware of his position on the paper map on his passenger seat. The two-way radio sitting on top of it had been silent for far too long. He knew he had enough food and water and other miscellaneous resources to last some time, and he could always pick up more once he came across a gas station or grocery store. Whenever that would be. 

With everything that had happened lately, Ted often found it difficult to keep track of everything. When his thoughts started spinning in the hours when he fruitlessly tried fall asleep, ideas and hopes and speculation blurring together, he found it helped to sort through the sequence of events that had led to this happening in the first place. Here are the facts:

  1. About three months ago, the majority of the human population had spontaneously developed strange… powers. Scientists had started looking for the source, but as far as he was aware, nobody had really figured out where they came from yet. 
  2. Once people started using those powers, world governments scrambled to find ways to keep them in check. As would be expected, many were using them for destructive purposes. 
  3. A few weeks after the initial “outbreak”, an accident had happened. Somewhere (the details became less and less important as time went on), a person had extended some invisible limit of what their powers could do. Witnesses say they were “consumed” by them, turning into something that definitely wasn’t human, going on a mindless rampage through their city. The casualties were numerous. 
  4. In the ensuing weeks, more and more of these incidents were reported worldwide, increasing exponentially. Every person on the planet had gained the capacity to spontaneously become a weapon of mass destruction.
  5. Eventually, it became near-impossible to control. Casualties multiplied, infrastructure was damaged, and...
  6. Phone lines went down, then the Internet; cities emptied as people scrambled to get as far away from others as possible. The world population decreased by ten percent, then twenty-five, then fifty, until it became too difficult to hold a census.
  7. Once it had become too dangerous, Ted grabbed his car and started driving. 



In this situation, solitude was safer, of course. Less of a chance of suddenly getting attacked by an elemental monster. Other people were dangerous, Ted knew, so he did his best to stay away from them. But here’s the catch: it was incredibly fucking lonely. 

And there was nothing to do besides keep driving.

That is, until the radio crackled to life.


	2. like every other morning

That morning was otherwise unremarkable. Ted woke up from a night of light and restless sleep, ate a breakfast that was as small as possible while giving him enough energy to keep driving, and took a moment to admire the sunrise before starting the engine of the car again. The colors painted across the sky were one of the few beautiful things he had left, and even though it was harder to care now, he still tried to take a moment to appreciate it whenever he could. 

Once the silence of the empty road became too much again, Ted drove. A glance at his map told him that he should be approaching a town soon. Good, he needed to pick up some fuel, and it never hurt to have access to more food and water. 

Those kinds of practical thoughts were all filled his mind nowadays. He was scared of where his thoughts would wander if he let anything else in. 

The sound of the engine was monotonous, but familiar in a comforting way. There wasn’t really anything else to listen to; Ted’s phone with its catalogue of music had ran out of battery long ago, and he hadn’t had the foresight to put any CDs in the glove compartment. Not that that had been a priority back then. 

The dull drone of the car was interrupted that morning, though. At first, Ted didn’t recognize the sound. A strange crackling, hissing noise-

The radio! The realization came to him in a flash. He grabbed it, holding it close, desperately hoping for something, _anything_ -

A voice, unmistakably human, probably male, filtered through. Adrenaline rushed through Ted’s body, a grin spreading across his face, and he felt more alive than he had in weeks. It had been far too long since he’d heard from another human being. 

“Hello? Hello. Uh, if anyone’s even getting this message, I’m trying to find other survivors. I’m at a safe spot, I’ve got plenty of food and water with me. Oh, my name’s Charlie Dalgleish, come find me at…”

Ted slammed the brakes, pulling to an abrupt stop in the middle of the road. His grin dropped, replaced with an expression of shock. The voice started rattling off an address and some coordinates, but Ted wasn’t listening anymore, his mind suddenly spinning with an avalanche of thoughts. 

Had he heard that correctly? 

Was that name really- 

The chance that he would find one of his friends out here was incredibly slim, but if it was- 

It had been so long since he had allowed himself to hope-

“So yeah, come and find me. Uh, I’m repeating the message. My name is Charlie Dalgleish, and I’m -”

Ted snapped out of his daze. “Charlie, is that you?” The desperate words scraped against his throat, his voice hoarse from disuse.

It took a moment to get a response, but the seconds of silence felt like a lifetime. Ted felt as if he couldn’t breathe. 

“Oh! Um, hi. Wasn’t expecting a reply so soon! Who is this?”

“Charlie, it’s Ted. Ted Nivison.”

There was another moment of silence, in which the only sound was the pounding of Ted’s heart. “Wait. Wait, wait, w-what? Ted? Is that really you?” Charlie’s voice was so familiar now, how could Ted have thought it was anyone else? He could almost cry.

“It’s me! Charlie, I- It’s me. I’m here.” 

“Ted…” He heard Charlie exhale, followed by a shocked chuckle. “Holy shit. Holy fucking shit.” 

“Yeah.” Ted had no words, but he couldn’t help the small laugh that tore from the back of his throat. This should be impossible, right? There was no way this was happening. 

If this was a dream, he didn’t want to wake up.

“I… shit.” Charlie spoke up again. “How did you get out here? Why…”

“I honestly don’t know. I was just driving, and I ended up here, I guess. I really don’t know.”

“Yeah, about the same, I think. I was trying to get away from big cities, found some supplies, settled down here for now. I don’t… oh, i-is anyone with you?”

"No, it's just me." Ted paused for a moment, mind still swirling with thoughts, but sat up abruptly as the realization slammed into him. He could find Charlie, actually physically _see_ him, he wouldn’t have to be alone anymore. “Listen, tell me your address again. I’m coming to you, right now.”

“Oh, right, yeah.” Charlie replied before energetically rattling off his location, and Ted scrambled to find a pen to write it down. It didn’t take him long to locate it on the map.

“Shit, that’s not even far. I should be able to get to you in, uh, maybe a day? Two?”

“Oh, fantastic!” Ted could hear the smile in Charlie’s voice. He started driving again, slowly at first, and didn’t even realize how hard he was pressing down on the gas pedal until he was zooming down the road at breakneck speed. He had a goal now, finally, and he couldn’t get there a second too soon.

“I was wondering…” Charlie’s voice sounded again, “do you think this is even a good idea? I mean, it’s… is it safer to be alone?”

It took Ted a moment to answer. That was a question he’d been pondering too, but he knew the answer he gave was genuine. “To be honest, I don’t really care anymore.”

“Yeah… yeah, that’s true. Fuck, I just want to see another person who isn’t trying to kill me.”

Ted chuckled again, somewhat morbidly. For a moment, he drove in silence, but after that drop of social interaction it quickly became too much to bear. 

“Keep talking. Just… keep talking. It’s been so long since I’ve heard from anyone, I...” he trailed off, but Charlie picked up his train of thought.

“Yeah. It’s lonely out here. Right, I’ll keep talking. Uh…”

When Charlie hesitated, Ted butted in with the first thing that popped into his head. “You got powers too, right, when this whole thing started? What kind?”

“Oh, um, plants, I guess. I can make them grow and… stuff. I gathered some potted plants from the houses around here, I’m trying to take care of them, it’s a way to pass the time. Kinda reminds me of…” he trailed off. “How about you?

“Air stuff. Like, wind and shit. It’s kind of ironic, I made that joke before and now I’m actually an airbender.” 

“Oh, air?” Something in Charlie’s voice changed, but Ted didn’t recognize it until it was already too late. “Wow, fighting those monsters must be a breeze for you, then.”

It took Ted a moment to process that terrible joke. Once he did, though, he leant back in his seat, releasing an exhale that turned into a chuckle, then a full-on laugh, sounding almost hysterical. As he struggled to breathe again, it felt like an enormous weight that had held him down for months had finally been lifted from his chest.

“As much as I hate to admit it, Charlie, I missed you and your stupid fucking jokes. It’s so good to hear your voice again.”

Charlie laughed in response, loud and genuine. “Missed you too.”


	3. if it's gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe I chose a bad time to upload this? Timezones are a pain in the ass. Oh well.

As the sun was closing in on the horizon, Ted pulled up next to a group of buildings by the side of the road. A part of his mind was screaming at him to keep driving, to not stop until he’d reached Charlie, but he’d eventually been convinced by him to find a place to stay for the night instead of continuing to drive with no sleep. Besides, it was always good to have access to more resources.

It wasn’t much of a town, really, more of a rest stop: a gas station, a diner, some homes and a tourist trap, the name of which Ted hadn’t bothered to find. Normally, reading the billboards by the side of the road would have been one of his few sources of entertainment, but for the past few hours, that spot had been taken up by his increasingly ridiculous conversations with Charlie. 

“So you’ve just been driving around aimlessly all this time?” he said as Ted stepped out of his car, radio in hand. “Doesn’t sound like a very productive way to spend the apocalypse.”

“What did you expect me to do then? Just sit in one place forever until I starve?” Only half paying attention to the conversation, he looked at the buildings around him, weighing his options. Maybe he’d try the diner first. Highest chance of finding food.

“I’ll have you know I’ve done a lot more than that.” As Ted rounded the corner of the building, he saw that the back half had collapsed in on itself, the roof having caved in. The whole mess was covered in a tangle of vines and plants.

“Oh, really? Like what?” Ted’s response was half-hearted. This had been the site of an attack. That explained why the place was deserted. 

In every zombie movie Ted had seen, the monsters’ strength came from numbers, from the swarms of them that ran towards you without stopping, that attacked until there was nobody left to fight back. But not here. One elemental was more than enough to kill you.

Apparently not recognizing his change in tone, Charlie said, “Well, I’ve been scavenging the other houses for supplies, setting up defenses, making this place more comfortable, oh, I tried to make a self-sustaining food source, that was fun. Generally just… finding things to do, I guess. And there’s plenty of food here, so I won’t be starving anytime soon.”

Ted tried to clear his thoughts, summoning back some of his old bravado. He’d seen ruins like this before, it shouldn’t be a big deal. “Oh, I see. So that’s how it is. I’ve been working my ass off to scrape together enough food to survive, and you’ve been sitting around _gardening_.” 

Charlie laughed. “What can I say, it’s comfortable.” The thing wouldn’t have stuck around after all the people were gone, right? He should be safe for now.

Gingerly, Ted stepped into the diner, dodging the shards of glass and pieces of broken furniture littering the floor. Cobwebs and dust covered most surfaces, and there was nothing usable from what he could see. Looking into the booths and under tables, he was greeted by more dust and cobwebs. 

“You see anything?” Charlie asked. 

“No, nothing besides spiders. And I haven’t sunk low enough to start eating those yet.”

“Give it some time.” Charlie paused, Ted noticing his shift in tone when he started speaking again. “Actually, now that I think about it, spiders are actually pretty good company. One of my best friends here is a spider. He’s a great guy, said he works as a web designer.”

Ted sighed. “I can’t believe we’re in the middle of an apocalypse and you’re still making so many puns.”

“Well, I’ve had a lot of time to practice.”

Ted didn’t admit it, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t enjoying every second of it. He’d forgotten just how much a simple interaction with a friend could brighten someone’s day, and that was something he had sorely needed.

He moved into the kitchen area, or at least the part of it that hadn’t been crushed. When he was greeted with even more dust, coughing as he almost inhaled some, he created a small gust of wind to clean the air and allow himself to breathe properly again. Checking the refrigerator was only a habit at this point; since power plants stopped functioning, electricity was rare to come by, so anything that he did find there would likely have gone bad already. The fridge was mostly empty, anyway. Some packets of meat, a small head of lettuce, and… a carton of spoiled milk.

Ted couldn’t help his laughter. “Look what we have here. It seems the milkman’s back in business.”

Charlie chuckled in response from the other side of the radio. “Well, the world needs you now more than ever.”

Doing his best to put on a dramatic voice and accent, Ted continued, “But of course! Milk delivery is an essential public service! I daresay I’m the only one still capable of pulling society back from the brink of collapse. That is the burden the milkman must bear.”

“With great power comes great responsibility,” Charlie mused.

“Exactly! Oh, my friend, you are the only one who understands my plight. I have never been more glad to have you by my side, my trusty sidekick.”

“Wait, since when am I the sidekick?” Charlie sounded almost hurt. 

“You’ve always been the sidekick. I’m the main character here, Charlie. Try to keep up.”

Checking the rest of the kitchen didn’t yield any better results. The most Ted found were some circles clean of dust in a cupboard that looked like it might have once held cans of food. It seemed that other scavengers had already passed through here. 

As Ted prepared to leave the building, something else caught his eye. There was a shape, almost like a handprint, in the dust on top of one of the counters. It looked fairly fresh. As Ted stepped outside, contemplating what it could mean, he almost didn’t notice the looming shape in the middle of the cluster of buildings.

When his gaze finally snapped to it, he froze. Fear flooded his thoughts, mind going blank as he desperately tried to think of escape routes, ways to get back to his car, ways to fight -

But the shape wasn’t moving. 

After a few moments, Ted tentatively took a step forward. It wasn’t a living being at all, but rather a pile of burnt… something. Upon closer inspection, Ted recognized the shapes of leaves and stems, laid in the general shape of something enormous and vaguely humanoid. 

“Ted?”

He suddenly recognized what he was looking at with a jolt. “Elemental,” he said almost to himself. 

“Wait, an elemental?” Charlie’s tone turned panicked immediately. “Ted, you need to get out of there, you need to leave-”

“No, it’s dead. Someone burned it. We should be good.”

“Oh.” Charlie exhaled with what must have been relief. “Don’t scare me like that. You had me worried for a second.”

As Ted left in a hurry to get away from the monster’s remains, he didn’t notice that the pile was still smoking.

Ted made his way through the remaining buildings in the area, saving the gas station for last. Each house seemed more empty than the next. No food, no fuel, no weapons or ammo. The most he found was a leather jacket slung over a chair, and a large amount of useless cow-related merchandise from the tourist trap. Everything else had been wiped clean. 

When Ted stepped outside once again into the cool evening air, the light in the sky was almost gone. “I think this place is a bust, Charlie. Someone’s definitely been through here already.”

“Oh. Did you check the gas station?”

“Not yet, but considering everything else is gone, I don’t think I’ll find much there either.” 

“That sucks. I mean, I’ve got enough stuff here that it probably won’t be an issue, but it would have been helpful to find more.” Ted could hear a twinge of doubt in his voice when he mentioned his existing resources. Maybe he wasn't in as good a situation as he was claiming. Ted was too tired to pursue that line of thinking, though.

“Yeah. I’ll check the gas station just in case, but I don’t think I’ll find anything. Maybe I can stay in one of the houses overnight, it’d be nice to sleep in a bed-”

Out of nowhere, a deafening roar split the silence of the evening. Ted froze in his tracks again, eyes widened in fear, hands starting to tremble. He recognized that sound.

“What the fuck was that?” Charlie’s panicked voice came through the radio. Ted wasn’t listening. Things had been going so well, he thought he was safe here, _why was this happening now -_

Another sound rang through the air. Ted’s head snapped up as he realized what it was. A scream, raw and fearful and far too human. 

It took a moment to pinpoint the direction; it had come from the gas station’s shop, the last place he hadn’t checked yet. For a moment, Ted stood in place, torn between getting closer and getting the hell out of there. He needed to leave, he needed to run, so why couldn’t he bring himself to move?

From the gas station, in the dark of the approaching night, he could vividly see the orange glow of fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot happened in this chapter, mostly setup and an excuse to practice dialogue, but the next one will be a lot more eventful, I promise!


	4. half a mile an hour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update already! Don't expect this kind of schedule to be normal though, tbh I already had most of this chapter written before I posted the previous one. 
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, so here you go!
> 
> Warnings: this chapter contains mentions of fire, explosions, and some fire-related injuries.

Unable to move, unable to think through the chaos of the situation, Ted tried to pull himself back to reality, think rationally. Here are the facts:

  1. There was an elemental in the gas station.
  2. There was a person in there with it.



It was a stranger, a complete stranger. Staying here would be dangerous. Saving a person and then being forced to take them with him was dangerous. Ted needed to get away, needed to drive as far away from there as possible. And yet...

”Ted, you need to leave, you need to leave _now!_ ” Charlie’s frantic words snapped Ted out of his thoughts. He shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind. Why was he still hesitating? He began to move back towards his car… 

Until he heard another scream. Ted didn’t know why, but he felt a twist of regret in his gut, and his resolve shattered to pieces. Suddenly, running away seemed cowardly, selfish, weak. Shouldn’t he try to help? What kind of person would he be if he didn’t help them?

“Charlie, there’s a person in there! I’m not leaving them to die. I’m going in.”

“Wait, no no no, bad idea, don’t-”

Ted ignored Charlie’s protests, leaving the radio on the roof of his car before moving towards the station, first walking and then breaking into a run while his mind screamed that this was a horrible idea. He passed the parking lot, the unfamiliar car parked there, _how the hell had he missed a whole fucking car in the parking lot,_ pausing some distance away from the doors of the shop. 

As he stared at the flashes of fire inside, the wind picked up. It surrounded him, power dancing at his fingertips, ready to be released at any second. But what could he do? If he tried to put out the fires, he could end up only fanning the flames or making them spread elsewhere, a dangerous thing near a gas station.

An idea sparked in Ted’s mind. Instead of trying to manipulate the air around him to fight the fires, Ted grabbed at the air inside the shop and tugged it towards him. Fire needs oxygen to burn, so what if there was no more oxygen? He pulled out as much of the air as he could, then, gritting his teeth from the effort, formed a barrier around the entrances to prevent fresh air from getting in. As the remaining oxygen inside burned up, the light show inside the gas station dimmed, then ceased entirely. Ted formed a bubble of air around himself and ran.

When Ted burst through the door, the first thing he saw was the… _thing_ cowering in a corner. Its whimpers may have almost been pitiful, if it wasn’t for everything else about it. Even though Ted had seen things like it before, he couldn’t help the wave of terror and nausea that momentarily paralyzed him. 

The _thing_ was almost humanoid in shape, but hunched over, towering, grotesque. Its skin was blackened and charred, smoldering with heat, like coals from a fire. Its face… Ted didn’t want to look at its face. There was nothing human left in its gaze, not anymore. 

It couldn’t burn anymore, but it sure as hell was trying to. Incapacitated for the moment, but they needed to hurry.

Ted’s eyes fell to the man in front of him, baseball bat discarded by his side. He was definitely still human, clothing burnt or torn in places, patches of skin red and blistering, struggling to breathe on the ground. With a jolt, Ted realized that part was his fault. He ran forward and extended the bubble of air around him towards the stranger, who immediately gasped for air. After a few moments of sputtering, he growled without turning to face him, “What the fuck was that? You could have killed me!”

Ted began to retort, to say that he shouldn’t complain when he saved his life, but as he registered the sound of the man’s voice, he found himself unable to form the words. That voice.. all too familiar, and completely impossible. For the second time today, Ted was hearing someone he definitely shouldn’t be hearing out here, of all places. His gaze froze on the stranger - no, not a stranger - with his brain refusing to process what he was seeing. The cap, the vintage sweatshirt, the steel-toed boots -

The _creature_ let out a roar, starting to stagger towards them, clearly still struggling. Fear made Ted snap back into action, moving to help the man stand. “Get up, we need to go.”

The man shook him off roughly, growling “Let go of me, you b-” 

Their eyes met. 

There was a moment of stillness in the chaos. No mistaking it now. No matter how impossible, this was exactly who Ted thought it was. 

“Ted?” His voice was hoarse and tired, but after years of knowing him, Schlatt’s accent was unmistakable.

No time to talk about that now. “We gotta move!”

Schlatt stared at him for a few seconds in disbelief, then, grabbing his baseball bat, took Ted’s outstretched hand and staggered to his feet. Without letting go, Ted began to pull him towards the exit. Schlatt’s movement was agonizingly slow, and Ted remembered with a jolt that he was injured. 

“I have a car, we just need to get outside before that thing gets to us!” 

They only made it a few meters before, in a sudden burst of movement, the monster shot towards them with a roar of anger.

In a moment of panic and rage, Ted threw out his hands, sending the air around him towards the monster in a sharp gust. It sent it staggering backward, knocking it off-balance, but-

Ted realized his mistake when its eyes flashed a vivid orange. The next moment, a column of fire shot towards him impossibly fast-

Just before the inferno hit them, Schlatt let go of Ted’s arm and raised a hand towards the beast. The flames split to either side of the duo, just barely missing their target, and Ted could feel their scorching heat next to his cheek. As the onslaught continued, Schlatt’s hand began to tremble. 

“Can’t… keep this up for long…” he struggled through gritted teeth.

Ted could already feel the exhaustion from using his powers starting to set in, but he couldn’t afford to stop now. Once again, he grabbed at the air inside the building, shooting it towards the shop’s doors to force them to burst open. The rush of flames stopped momentarily, and Ted took advantage of the beast’s hesitation to grab Schlatt and run outside. 

The pair struggled across the parking lot towards Ted’s car, with Ted half-dragging Schlatt along with him. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw the monster unable to exit through the small doorway, smashing into the wall to force its way outside. “We’re almost there!” Ted shouted, using a rush of air to boost them along. 

They made it to the car the moment the elemental broke through. Ted threw himself into the driver’s seat while Schlatt stumbled to the passenger side, slamming the door behind him. Ted turned the ignition and prepared to speed off, calling “Seatbelts!” to Schlatt.

“Wait, Ted, don’t drive, I have an idea. Can you hold it back?”

Ted gritted his teeth, but obliged. With the last of his energy, he sent a gale of wind towards the elemental, pushing it backward while it tried to force its way towards them. “This better be fucking good, Schlatt!” 

Schlatt held up his hand, sparks flashing between his fingers, a small smirk on his face. “This is a gas station, isn’t it?” 

Ted suddenly understood. “If you blow us up, I’m going to kill you.” He heard the creature roar, saw Schlatt extend a hand out of the car’s window, saw a small flame flare up near the gas pumps -

Schlatt frantically shouted “Drive, drive!”

Ted punched the gas pedal and the car rocketed forward, not a moment too late. In a split second, the sound of an explosion burst from behind them, leaving Ted’s ears ringing. As they sped down the road, running on adrenaline and the remaining dregs of their strength, not daring to look back, Schlatt let out a shrill “Whoooop!” Ted found himself grinning with him. 

He’d spent so long running in fear from those monsters, just barely scraping by with his life from the encounters, and now, finally getting to blow one the fuck up? It was cathartic, he couldn’t deny.

In the thrill of the moment, he didn’t even realize he’d left the radio behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo, we have all three of the character tags now! Will more show up later? Perhaps...


	5. passengers waving goodbye

“Do you think we can stop?”

Ted didn’t know how long they’d been driving. Once the adrenaline from their escape had worn off, they'd been constantly on edge in the tense silence, listening for sounds of more monsters in the dark who could have been drawn to them by the explosion. Both Schlatt and Ted were in no condition for another fight, so he’d tried to get them as far away from the scene as possible. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep it up, though.

Ted sighed, exhaustion weighing down his limbs and fogging his mind. “We should be far enough for now, I think we can take a break.”

As the car rolled to a stop, Ted glanced at his companion, the full weight of the situation finally sinking in. J fucking Schlatt was sitting in the passenger seat of his car, alive and (relatively) well. Schlatt, of all people. What were the chances of that?

Despite himself, Ted began to chuckle. They’d blown up a monster, he’d found a friend, he was on his way to a safe haven. It had been so long since he’d had a cause to celebrate. For a moment, Schlatt looked at him as if he’d gone insane, but then began laughing as well. 

“Holy shit, Ted.” Surprise, relief and gratitude mingled in his voice, and Ted grinned back at him. His smile only widened when he remembered who they were headed to.

“Oh, Charlie’s gonna be-“

...Charlie. Ted’s grin shattered. 

The radio.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

Panicked, Ted glanced around the car, fruitlessly looking for the something he knew wasn’t there. He knew exactly where he’d left the radio. On the roof of his car at the gas station, now probably lying on the ground somewhere behind them.

He slammed his fist against the steering wheel. “Fuck!”

“What?” Schlatt exclaimed at his sudden outburst.

“I lost the fucking radio. I-I can’t contact Charlie anymore, I… How did this happen? Why the fuck would I do that?” Anger and regret filled his mind, mainly at himself. 

“Wait, Charlie?” Schlatt’s eyes widened. “As in-”

“As in Slimecicle Charlie, yes.” As Ted realized what Charlie must be thinking now, what the last thing he’d heard from him was, his anger towards himself was overtaken by concern towards his friend. “Fuck, he must be worried. The last thing he heard from me was me running into a burning building like an idiot.”

Schlatt leaned back in his seat with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “Charlie, huh? Well, it’s good to know he’s alive, but he probably thinks we’re dead now.” Ted winced at his bluntness, but sighed as well. After a moment, Schlatt continued, “...I need a moment to process this. Um, do you have any medicine on you? Because…” he looked down at his hand, Ted remembering his burns with a jolt.

“Oh, fuck, right. At the back, come on.”

Ted stepped out into the night, a shiver running down his spine when the cold air hit his skin. It was deathly quiet except for the chirping of crickets and the sigh of the wind. Schlatt mirrored his movements on the other side of the car, but as they both walked forwards Ted noticed that he walked with a slight limp. 

They met at the back of the car. For a moment, they simply stood there, Ted fully taking in the man standing in front of him for the first time since the chaos had begun. Schlatt looked more tired, more worn, just as Ted imagined he looked himself, but still so, so familiar. 

Without thinking, Ted stepped forward and pulled Schlatt into a hug. He hadn’t realized how much he had been starved for human contact until he did. Schlatt must have been thinking the same thing, because he inhaled sharply with surprise, and it took him a moment before he raised his arms to hug him back. But he did. 

Ted exhaled shakily. If he started crying now, Schlatt would never let him hear the end of it. 

Ted was the first to let go, moving to open the boot of the car, then rummaging among his limited posessions for his first-aid kit and some bottles of water. He straightened up, tossing one of the bottles to Schlatt, then looked around awkwardly for a moment for a place to sit. Eventually, he waved Schlatt towards the front of the car, where they settled down on the hood, looking up at the stars blanketing the sky.

From the limited amount of first aid Ted had learned, none of Schlatt’s injuries looked incredibly serious, but must have been painful nonetheless. He shuffled through the kit, finding bandages, antibiotic ointment and pain relievers, and the pair got to work treating the burns. They fell into silence, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable one; merely being in the presence of a friend after so long was enough. 

After some time, though, the silence became just a little too much. “So, you got fire?” Ted asked in a feeble attempt at conversation.

Schlatt nodded absently. “They call me Prince Zuko.” 

Ted couldn’t help the chuckle that tore from the back of his throat. “Do they, now.”

Ted racked his brain for something to talk about, but his eyes fell to a bandage wrapped around Schlatt’s calf. When he looked towards him, a question at the back of his throat, Schlatt winced and looked away. “Water elemental. Ice. It’s not a big deal.”

“If it’s bad enough to cause a limp, it’s probably a big deal,” Ted muttered, but dropped the subject. They had more urgent injuries to deal with at the moment. There was something he was still curious about, though, so after a moment he asked “How did you end up at that gas station in the first place?”

Emotion flashed across Schlatt’s face, too fast for Ted to catch. “The guy back there was giving me a lift. We, uh, stopped at the gas station for supplies. Then he said he was ditching me, that it was safer to travel alone, and, well. Things just went to shit from there.”

Ted couldn’t repress the shudder that ran through him. Schlatt had seen the man turn into that monster. That couldn’t have been pleasant to watch, especially since he had known him. But… “You fought back?”

“What else was I supposed to do? He was going to just leave me by the side of the road with basically nothing. I wasn’t going to kill him, I didn’t even wanna hurt him that bad, but then he…” Schlatt paused, pain evident in his face. “I guess he just had a low limit on his powers.”

Something was still bugging Ted about the situation, and he suddenly realized what it was. “That was kind of a dumb move.”

“What? Why’s that?”

“If you’d just stayed, I could have just picked you up. I was right there.”

“How could I have known that?” Schlatt sounded almost angry.

When the bitter irony of the situation fully sunk in, Ted almost wanted to laugh. If Schlatt hadn’t fought with the other man, he would have never turned into an elemental, Ted wouldn’t have had to run in to rescue him, he wouldn’t have lost the radio, they wouldn’t have had to blow up the gas station and possibly attract even more danger. The whole situation could have gone so much better, maybe if he’d been there just a second earlier, if he’d noticed the other car in the parking lot, if, if…

Ted stopped himself. Contemplating _if_ s hadn’t done him any good in the past few months, and going down this rabbit hole wouldn’t help either of them. 

He could see his thought process reflected on Schlatt’s face, as he clenched his fists in anger and then shrunk back, almost sad. 

The pair lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. The dissonance of the situation made Ted’s head spin. He was in the best situation he’d been in in months, but at the cost of a string of bad decisions and bad luck that might make things turn out for the worse in the future.

Schlatt finally muttered, almost to himself, “Do you think he was right?”

“What?”

“That being near other people is more dangerous.”

That question again. Charlie had asked him the same thing. At this point, though, Ted was tired of contemplating it. 

“No. I’m not just going to leave you in the middle of nowhere. We’re sticking together.” The decisiveness and confidence in his own voice was surprising to him, but Schlatt looked up at him with gratitude. 

“Thank you.”

Eventually, Ted clapped his hands together in an attempt to sound enthusiastic. “Alright, we need to move. Get as far away as possible, get to Charlie. He’s got resources, he’s at a safe spot, we just need to reach him.”

“Right, yeah.” The pair stood almost simultaneously, but Ted swayed on his feet as he felt a wave of tiredness crash into him again. Schlatt must have seen his hesitation, because he asked “Are you good?”

“I…” There was no point in lying to him. “I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to stay awake. It’s been a while since I’ve used my powers this much.”

“I can drive. I’ll wake you up in a few hours, but try to get some rest until then.”

Ted knew Schlatt must have been worn out as well, but he was too tired to argue. “You assume that I’d actually trust you with my car.”

“Now that’s just offensive.” There was a small smile on Schlatt’s face though, and Ted smiled back.

After giving Schlatt the map and their destination, Ted settled into the passenger seat, trying his best to make himself comfortable. He didn’t know if he’d be able to sleep after everything that had happened in the past few hours, but his exhaustion finally caught up to him, and he let the movement of the car lull him into a fitful sleep. Just before his eyes shut, the last thought that flashed across his mind was of Charlie.

* * *

“Ted, Ted, what’s going on? Talk to me, are you still there?”

There was no response from the radio. 

“Come on, buddy, don’t do this to me!”

There were a million reasons Ted might not be responding. Maybe he dropped the radio, maybe it was broken, maybe it just ran out of power. Maybe he had rescued someone and was busy helping them out. There were a million different reasons. He was fine, right? He had to be fine, he had to be

There was nothing but static. Nothing.

Charlie didn’t realize tears were blurring his vision until they started to fall. 

Of course it was too much to hope for that he’d actually see one of his friends, it had all seemed too good to be true from the start. He should have never gotten his hopes up, shouldn’t have thought that things were actually going well for once….

The plants around him shifted, stretching, growing, curling around his limbs. He was aware of every stem, every leaf, every cell around him as they warped and twisted and wound around the radio, constricting around it, squeezing it, crushing it, his last hope that had been taken away just like that

No. Charlie couldn’t let himself fall apart now. He needed to pull himself together, calm down, think rationally. That radio was his last lifeline to the rest of the world, he couldn’t let himself tear it apart in a fit of emotion. 

The truth was, Charlie didn’t know what had happened. 

The truth was, even if the worst had happened, this wasn’t the end of the world. 

But in that moment, the silence around him felt more deafening than it ever had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might come back to edit that last part if it's too angsty. 
> 
> I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for your support on this story so far! Your comments and kudos mean a lot, and I'm really glad people are enjoying this thing that I just started as a writing exercise. Thanks for reading!


	6. all this time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! You may have noticed that we have shiny chapter titles now! Maybe I'll keep them, maybe I won't, we'll see if I like them or not. 
> 
> This chapter's kind of a big one, so I hope you'll enjoy :)

They drove for the whole night, then the whole day, taking turns for a few meagre hours of sleep. Fear of the monsters, fear for Charlie, simple desperation to get somewhere safe, kept them going even when Ted began to doubt his ability to drive straight. 

All of that was worth the rush of relief when they saw a town appear on the horizon, though. It was the same one Ted had marked on his map, the same one where Charlie would be waiting for them, their safe haven. In the driver’s seat, Schlatt grinned at him, and Ted grinned back. 

They parked the car at the edge of town. As the glow of the setting sun shone through the windshield, shining off Ted’s glasses, they sat in the silence for a moment, neither willing to make the first move. Anticipation and excitement buzzed in Ted’s veins, but nervousness and fear blurred together with them. They hadn’t had contact with Charlie for almost twenty-four hours. Neither knew exactly what to expect. 

Eventually, Ted exhaled sharply, sat up and moved his hand to the car door. “Shall we?”

“...yeah.” Schlatt grabbed his baseball bat from the floor of the car, and they opened their doors simultaneously. 

They moved slowly through the deafening silence of the town, jumping at even the slightest noise. Even now, Ted couldn’t quite get over the _wrongness_ of seeing the empty streets and lifeless buildings, the stillness in a space that should have been bustling with activity. There were no cars kicking up dust on the roads, no groups of people lost in conversation on the sidewalks, nobody sitting in the warm glows of cafes or moving in and out of busy stores. Their only company was the disappearing daylight and the forlorn whistle of the wind. 

As they walked, something strange caught Ted’s eye. It was a flower, growing by the side of the road. Large, bright blue, and utterly out of place in this climate. He looked away, dismissing it as unimportant, but as they continued he couldn’t help but notice more strange plants around the town. Shrubs, clumps of blossoms, and even a succulent here and there. Always planted nearly the same distance apart. One would be small enough to avoid notice, but once Ted started noticing the patterns, it couldn’t be anything but deliberate.

Mulling over what that could mean, Ted almost missed the building that matched the address Charlie had given them. He only looked up when he almost bumped into Schlatt, who had come to a sudden stop in front of the convenience store. 

It was dark. 

One of the windows was cracked. No light shone through it, no movement was visible from inside. 

It was quiet. 

Ted and Schlatt shared a glance. Ted saw his own fear reflected in his eyes. 

“Charlie?” he called tentatively. 

There was no response. They waited a moment longer with bated breath, the weight of the silence feeling as if it would crush them. Nothing.

Schlatt exhaled shakily. “Now what?” 

“He… he must be around here somewhere. We need to go look for him.”

“Maybe we should split up.”

Ted turned to Schlatt with a glare. “You’re still injured, you can hardly walk properly. We’re barely recovered enough to take on a monster between the two of us, definitely not by ourselves, and if something happens we have no way to call for help.”

“No, Ted, listen.”

He stood for a moment, but couldn’t hear anything besides the wind. “Listen to what? There’s nothing.”

“Exactly, there’s nothing. We’re completely alone out here. If we split up we can search faster, then we’ll meet back up here when we find him.” There was an unspoken _if_ in that statement, but neither of them wanted to admit it. 

Ted caved. “Alright. But we stick to a small area first. Just walk around for ten minutes, then come back here, say if we find anything. Neither of us goes too far.”

Schlatt nodded, straightening his spine. “Alright. You go right, I go left?”

Ted simply nodded back, not trusting himself to speak. 

As they walked off in different directions, thoughts were already beginning to swarm in Ted’s mind. Where could Charlie have gone? What had he been doing? Maybe they were just at the wrong building, maybe this was just some kind of misunderstanding, they’d probably be fine, right? But what if they were actually in the wrong place? They’d have no way to contact him to find where to go. What if something had actually happened? What if…

No, they’d be fine, he was sure. He would just step around this corner and Charlie would be there in front of him, alive and well, they’d be okay…

Something blocked out the light behind him. 

A shadow. An impossibly large shadow. 

Ted could barely bring himself to turn around. 

It was perched on top of a building. There was something feline, almost elegant, in the way it crouched, perfectly still, perfectly silent. Covered in a dark green mass of vines and leaves, piercing eyes, _don’t look at its eyes_ , staring right at him. 

It hissed. 

Something in that sound shattered Ted’s paralysis, and he ran. The only thing he could do was run. The thing screeched horribly behind him, a shrill, ear-splitting sound, and the ground shook as it landed, chasing after him. 

Blind terror kept Ted going even as his limbs protested, as his exhausted mind shot into overdrive. He’d booked it in a straight line, but he couldn’t outrun it even if he had some distance now, he needed to think, dammit Ted, _think_ -

He dodged onto another street, then around another corner, leaning against the wall for a moment to catch his breath and rack his brains for an exit strategy. He needed to find Schlatt, no, Schlatt needed to get the hell out, Schlatt needed to find Charlie and get the hell out -

A horrible thought flashed across Ted’s mind, and he desperately tried to force it down before it could overwhelm him. He didn’t want to face that fact, didn’t want to even begin to confront that possibility, didn’t want to think about it, didn’t… 

He didn’t want to look for his friend’s features in the face of that monster.

That moment’s hesitation cost him. The creature lunged around the corner; a thorned vine whipped towards him, leaving a deep scratch down his arm when he threw it up to protect his face. He didn’t have time to worry about poison when the monster leapt forwards again and he desperately scrambled backwards to avoid it, a vine whipped at his legs and he jumped to dodge it without thinking -

And shot upwards, higher than he could possibly have leapt naturally.

For a moment, it’s as if he was suspended, floating, lighter than air…

Then crashed back into the ground, his legs buckling under him. Before he could get up, before he could even move, vines burst from the ground around him, wrapping around his legs. He couldn’t run. He couldn’t move. 

The monster ran towards him with a screech. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t move.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze. 

Ted’s eyes wandered to the only spot of calm, of beauty, that he could see. One of those strange plants by the side of the road, a small flowery shrub, bright red blossoms. 

Something in its leaves was shifting.

All at once, the branches of the shrub exploded outwards, growing and growing, reaching out like the limbs of some strange animal. The branches snared the legs of the beast, curling around its form and halting it in its tracks just meters away from Ted, and it screeched horribly, trying to rip free, still reaching towards him. Not for long, though, when Ted seized the opportunity and blew a sharp gust of wind towards the monster; with its legs trapped, unable to move and keep its balance, it toppled backwards to the ground, more of the thorny branches growing upwards to grab onto its arms. 

Within moments, it was almost immobilized, still screeching with anger. Just like that.

When Ted tried to catch his breath, heart still beating as if it was about to burst out of his chest, he saw a figure emerge onto the street from behind one of the buildings. They approached the elemental, stepping forward cautiously, but then their eyes flicked in Ted’s direction. Ted met the stranger’s gaze across the street, and the figure froze in their tracks. They just stared at him. 

And Ted felt an impossible wave of pure relief crash over him as he realized he recognized those glasses, that brown hair swooped over his forehead, and the man broke into a run.

Charlie screamed his name, voice breaking in the middle of the strangled, desperate sound. A flick of his wrist made the vines holding Ted down release him, and he scrambled to get up, not taking his eyes off his friend until he stood right in front of him.

For a few seconds, Charlie stared up at Ted with disbelief, tears already building in his eyes… and then tackled him into a hug, nearly knocking him over. 

“You made it,” Charlie mumbled against Ted’s shoulder. _He was here, it hadn’t been him, he was safe, they were okay._

He squeezed Charlie back tighter. “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t know how long they stood there. He didn’t want to let go. 

Charlie eventually released him, though, beaming up at him and wiping a single tear from his cheek. He looked more worn, just like Schlatt, just like Ted, but that smile was still just as bright as he remembered it. 

The moment of joy was abruptly cut short, though, when the monster screeched again, and Ted remembered with a jolt that this wasn’t over yet.

“What do you think we should do with this thing?” Ted could see a glint of mischief in Charlie’s eyes, and the full weight of how much he had actually missed him hit him square in the chest. He grinned.

“Oh, I might have some ideas.”

As if on cue, the monster burst into flame. Charlie’s eyes widened in shock at its screeches of pain, the orange glow of the fire glinting off his glasses. 

“And, by the way, I found someone else on the way here.”

“Wh- Someone else? Who?”

“Charlie?” Schlatt’s voice called from the street behind them. Charlie twisted around sharply, mouth gaping open in surprise when he saw the slowly approaching figure. He looked back to Ted, then to Schlatt, then to Ted again, a questioning look in his eyes but no words coming from his mouth. 

Ted just smiled and nodded. 

Charlie looked at him for another moment, before racing over to meet Schlatt in the middle of the road. They both paused a few feet away from each other, a second of hesitation, but then simultaneously stepped forward into a desperate hug.

When they let go, Charlie sputtered for a moment, looking for the right words, before eventually settling on “So you did this?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Schlatt smirked. “You know what they call me, Charlie?”

“What do they call you?”

“They call me the Fireman.”

“Wow.” Charlie’s smile turned mischievous, and Ted knew exactly what was coming. “So I guess you were the big hot steamy man all along.”

Schlatt groaned, mumbling “I can’t fucking believe this” under his breath. He turned to Ted, the mock disgust in his voice not matching his grin. “Ted, can we leave? I forgot how fucking annoying this guy can be.”

Ted grinned back. “Yeah, I mean we can just go back to the car, it’s no problem-”

“No no no!” For a moment, Charlie’s fear almost sounded genuine, but then he continued “Sorry, I didn’t mean to burn any bridges.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then all three of them started laughing simultaneously. Schlatt’s almost maniacal cackling, Charlie’s higher-pitched laughter, and Ted’s own mirth washed over him, taking away the last of his panic and fear.

Through his fits of laughter, Charlie managed to pull all three into a group hug despite being the shortest of the trio. There, arms wrapped around his friends, smiling over a stupid joke, bathed in the glow of the sunset, Ted realized he felt… happy. Truly, genuinely, fully happy, for the first time in months. 

For the first time in months, he had nothing to worry about, nothing to fear.

For the first time in months, he was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell I like writing hugs yet? CAN YOU TELL?
> 
> In other news, we're about a third of the way through the story now! We've reached the end of "act one", so to speak. The next chapter's going to be a little different than usual, so stay tuned for that!
> 
> Once again, thank you all so much for your support so far!! Your comments and kudos really keep me going, I can't thank you enough. ~~(monkey brain see number go up and go "nice")~~


	7. how far we’ve come (epilogue)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I've mentioned in the author's notes at the beginning of this story, this story was originally going to consist of three separate arcs and this epilogue was supposed to conclude all of them. However, I only ever wrote the first arc, which is why this chapter may seem very disconnected from the rest of the story. I've decided to include it anyway for the sake of completion.

There wasn’t much left to do now besides…

Actually, scratch that. There was plenty to do. 

Life didn’t become… easy, exactly. Life hadn’t been easy for Ted since the disasters started, and it certainly wasn’t going to become easy anytime soon, but… it was better. It was infinitely, infinitely better than just being alone. 

Having to find enough food and resources to sustain six people wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but Los Angeles was a big, big city, and with the combination of their supply runs and Charlie and Cooper’s powers, that problem was soon sorted out. The monsters were still a threat, of course. The possibility of one of their powers overtaking them one day and tearing their fragile state of survival apart was still a threat. 

But it was the happiest Ted had been in months.

It was a careful balance of surviving and living. 

Surviving was going on supply runs with Schlatt, spending hours scavenging through buildings and avoiding notice by monsters. Living was practicing his powers with Noah, bouncing a paper aeroplane back and forth on gusts of wind until they inevitably hit someone in the eye and dissolved into fits of laughter. Surviving was tending to their garden in the sweltering heat, Cooper’s powers only barely enough to keep all the plants watered and alive. Living was cooking their meals with Travis, coming up with increasingly creative recipes to keep their dinners interesting with their limited supplies, and then enduring everyone’s semi-serious complaints when it wasn’t up to their impossible standards. Surviving was those sleepless nights when they saw elementals prowling the streets, trying their absolute best to not be seen, fighting until they were exhausted if their luck ran out. Living was D&D nights courtesy of Charlie, everyone getting increasingly invested in their characters and their banter and one of the last forms of escapism they had left; it was the sheer chaos that had unfolded the moment someone had finally figured out how to grow cannabis in their backyard; it was the warm day they spent at the beach, forgetting everything from the past few months, just enjoying the sun and the waves and getting some semblance of the life they’d lost back. 

It was a balance.

But Ted could pinpoint the day that balance finally started to shift. 

Schlatt came back from his supply run, grinning from ear to ear, arm wrapped around the shoulders of the man beside him as if afraid to let go. Against all conceivable odds, Josh had found his way back to them after all. 

That same night, Charlie burst into the common area, radio in hand, a voice coming through from the other end. It was an announcement from a government laboratory, seeking survivors, confirming that they were close to developing a cure. For the powers, for the transformations, everything. 

The celebrations of that night were the most joyful Ted had been part of in a long while. 

Things got better after that. The city started filling up as more survivors came back in search of safety, or scrambled out of the shadows they’d already been hiding in. It took a while, as these things tend to do, but something of a community sprung up from the ashes of civilization. Some semblance of normalcy.

There were nights that were still hard, always. Nights when he’d find himself on his knees in front of one of those fallen monsters, gasping for breath, exhaustion weighing down every bone in his body and something in his head screaming as if it were about to dissolve him from the inside out. But when Charlie or Schlatt or Cooper reached out a hand, he still took it, and he still got back up.

And every time, without fail, the sunrises after those nights were still beautiful.

So they survived, together. Ted and Schlatt and Charlie and Cooper and Travis and Noah and Josh, friends he’d once thought he’d never see again, facing each of those sunrises with him. Infinitely more than he could have hoped for. Infinitely better than facing them alone.

There was nothing left to do then besides… well, live.

And that was something Ted could get used to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s done! It’s done.
> 
> I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a full story, and I’m sorry this ending is a little lackluster, but it’s really all I’ve got. I don’t think I could have ever properly finished this, if I’m being honest with myself, and I really am sorry about that. But this is what I’ve got, this is the ending I wanted to get to since the start, and I wanted you all to at least see it too. 
> 
> I still have some scraps of other chapters in my drafts. If I ever find the will to finish them, I might post them as oneshots or shove them somewhere in here, but no promises. The majority of the missing chunk of this story just exists in my head, and never actually made it into words. There’s also a slight possibility of rewrites of a few chapters, and possibly edits of the missing interludes, but again, no promises.
> 
> Well, then. Thank you so much for sticking around, if you still have! In the end, this was a fun little project, and I’m still so incredibly grateful for all of your support and happy with what I achieved with this! Thank you so much for reading, and hopefully I’ll see you around!! <3<3<3


End file.
